In recovering assets that are or that represent the proceeds, objects, or instrumentalities
of corruption, do states violate international human rights, such as
the right to property? This book poses a question about the relationship
between means and ends in public international law. The first part of the riddle,
“corruption,” is the subject of some thirteen multilateral conventions on crime
control. The second, “asset recovery,” is tied to the fundamental principle of
“the return of assets” in the United Nations Convention against Corruption
(UNCAC), the most recent and comprehensive anti-corruption treaty.1 The
third, (individual) “rights to property,” were once a catch cry of the revolutionary
French and American bourgeoisie and are now individual and collective
entitlements in international treaties and, perhaps, customary international
law. Theirs is not a simple story of universal entitlements circumscribed, of
the fundamental rights of deposed autocratic leaders – the “bad guys” of our
time – to a “fair go” when new governments seek to (re)claim expatriated illicit
wealth. The concepts themselves are far from hard-edged. And their relationship
unfolds in the decentralized and loosely coordinated system of public
international law against a backdrop of concerns with the pernicious effects
of globalization, global income inequality, and “bad governance,” as well as the
lack of accountability of states and international organizations for people(s)
beyond their territorial and institutional borders.